Footwear assembling conveyer



'A ril 3, 1934. E. H. CLARK FOOTWEAR ASSEMBLING CONVEYER Filed Sept. 28,1928 2 Sheets-Sheet l 21v VENTOR. B faZaWd/Zw/k a RNEY April 3, 1934.

- E. H. CLARK 1,953,215 FOOTWEAR ASSEMBLING CONVEYER Filed Sept. 28.1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 [NVE/VTOR. [chard/7. C/ax/f ATTRNEX v PatentedApr. 3.1934

1,953,215 FOOTWEAR ASSEMBLING CONVEYER Application September 28, 1928,Serial No. 309,054

2 Claims. (Cl. 121) UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

This invention relates to a conveyer upon which footwear may beassembled.

Heretofore in the construction of footwear it has been usual to employa. trained operator who performed all the operations in the assemblingof the article. Such an operator necessarily had to be highly skilled inthe art, which necessitated a long training period and resulted in ahighly paid operator which increased the cost of building footwear.

It is an object of this invention to provide a device whereby theoperations of building footwear maybe separated so that the individualworkmen need not be skilled in as many opera- 5 tions, with the resultthat their training period may be short and the cost of productioncorrespondingly lower.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine whereby footwearmay be built in steps,

thus requiring less handling of the materials which go to make up thearticle footwear and which reduces the necessary handling of the formupon which the article is built.

Other objects of my invention will become 5 obvious in the detaileddescription which follows,

' reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one end of my ma.- chine; I

Fig. 2 is an end elevation partly in section of my machine; 1

Fig. 3 is a detailed view of the truck of my machine;

Fig. 4 is a detailed view showing a modification 5 of the articlesupport.

In the manufacture of an article of footwear, I

as carried out on my machine, the article 1 is built upon the last orform 2 which is supported on the plate 3 and the end of which abutsagainst the dowel block 4. Plate 3 and dowel block 4 are rotatablymounted by pins 5 and 6 respectively in thearms of the bifurcatedarticle support 7,

which article support is provided with a plate 8 rotatably mounted bymeans of pin 9 on the bearing face of the bracket 10, which isintegrally or otherwise connected with the truck 11.

The truck 11 has mounted thereon rods 12 held in position by the screws1313. Rollers 14 are positioned between the upper and lower ends of 60each rod 12 and the portions of the truck 11 to which the rod isconnected, said rollers being rotatable about the screws 13. An arm 15extends from the rod 12 and carries rotatably a flanged roller 16. Aflanged roller 17 is rotatably mounted on a boss formed on the lower endof the rod 12.

The rollers 14--14, 16 and 1'7 engage tracks 18 and 19, as shown inFig. 1. The roller 16 and corresponding roller 14 engage opposite sidesof the track 18 to prevent lateral movement of the truck with respect tothe track, a flange of the roller 16 serving to limit the upwardmovement of the truck. The roller 17 and the corresponding roller 14engage the track 19, the roller 1'7 serving to carry the weight of thetruck, and the flange of the roller 1'7 and the roller 14 together serveto prevent lateral movement of the truck with respect to the track.

The tracks 18 and 19 are united in a frame by means of the beams 20which support the tracks onthe upright frame 21. Upon the upper track 18and the upper beam 20 is supported the table 23 upon which the materialsto be used in constructing the article of footwear may be convenientlyplaced, as well as the tools employed by the workmen.

One of the rods 12 of the carriage 11 has an extending arm 25 which isconnected by means of the links 26 to the chain 27. The chain 27 istrained over sprockets '28 rotatably mounted at opposite ends of themachine. so

One of the sprockets 28 is keyed to the shaft 29 which is rotatablymounted in suitable bearings carried in the frame of the machine andwhich has keyed thereto the worm wheel 30 engaged by the worm 31. Worm31 is keyed to shaft 32 which rigidly carries the sprocket 33 driven bymeans of chain 34 from the sprocket 35 of the speed reducing mechanism36. Power is trans-'- mitted to the mechanism 36 by means of the shaft37 clutched to the shaft 38 leading to a suitable source of power.

In the operation of the machine the source of power acting through thespeed reducing and motion transmitting mechanism drives the chainthereby moving the carriage 11 along the tracks 18 and 19 so as to carrythe form or last 2 from operator to operator, each of whom appliescertain elements of the article of footwear as it passes by so that whenthe last has completed the circuit of the table, the article of footwearhas been completed.

In Fig. 4 is shown a modification of the article supporting device inwhich a. bracket 10 rotatably carries the support '71 which hasrotatably mounted thereon, as at '72, the plate '73. The plate '73 1carries the dowel block 74 upon which the form or last may be mountedand the plate '73 is provided with apertures 75 to beengaged by thedetent 76 so as to hold the plate '73 in adjusted position. v

While certain modifications of my invention have been described indetail as examples of my invention, it is not intended to limit myinvention thereto inasmuch as many variations in the details of themachine may be made all within the scope of my invention, which isindicated by the following claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protectby Letters Patent is:

1. A conveyer for making footwear having in combination a table, a framefor supporting said table, tracks forming a part of the frame, a truckmounted in movable engagement with said tracks, means for impartingmovement to said truck, and an article support mounted on the truck,said article support having a rotatably mounted plate for supporting theshank of a boot tree and a 1'0- tatably mounted dowel block forengagement with the shank end of the boot tree.

2. A conveyer for making footwear having in combination a table, a framefor supporting said table, tracks forming a part of the frame, a truckmounted in movable engagement with said tracks, means for impartingmovement to said truck, and an article support mounted on the truck,said article support being adjustable with respect to the truck andhaving a rotatably mounted plate for supporting the shank of a boot treeand a rotatably mounted dowel for engagement with the shank end oftheboot tree.

EDWARD H. CLARK.

